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Friday, May 31, 2013

Kraft Celebration Tour -- Childhood Memories

CHILDHOOD MOMENTS TO LAST A LIFETIME

Childhood memories are some of the most precious moments that are etched in our minds. Whether parents, grandparents or close friends, they have all played a vital role in creating these events.
Thankfully for me, when I look back to when I was a child, I can do nothing but smile. 'Today's Special,' 'Under the Umbrella Tree' and 'Polkadot Door' were my television favourites. I was brought up by two loving parents and I had one older sister; over time, a small Jack Russell Terrier was brought into the mix as well. We lived in a newly built house in Dundas, Ontario (outside Hamilton) and that is where I lived until moving out at 20. Dundas was a smaller, quiet town of about 15,000 people at the time. You knew a lot of people, but it wasn't small enough that everyone knew each others business.

What I loved most about that new survey I lived in was that many young families with children resided there too; especially one close family across the street. That is where I met my best friend, Stacey, when I was only 2 years old. To this day, we are still friends--which is very rare these days! Vivid memories of our friendship that really stand out are: taking dancing lessons for the majority of our youth, making friendship bracelets and trying to sell them to other kids in the neighbourhood (I must have been a business woman from a young age!), 'Skip-Its' (how many of you remember those dangerous toys?!) and finally, walking our 'babies' in strollers up and down our street. We often still laugh at that last memory because we were about 12 years old and still walking our dolls, trying to keep it a secret because we thought we were "too old to still be doing so."
There was also so much room to roam and explore around our neighbourhood. This was before any and all open fields were turned into rows of new houses like any area today. We could climb trees to see who got the highest, hunt frogs and run for miles in the wilderness of the Dundas Valley Conservation area 5 minutes from our homes. In the winter, the Conservation Area became the hot spot for tobogganing--the hill there was MASSIVE, however, was always such a pain to climb back up after sledding to the bottom! Lol.

In Dundas, sports were popular in the evenings for many families. I was very active and on average I engaged in about 4 different sports a year (baseball, basketball, and both dancing and swimming lessons). For a few summers, soccer was also added in there as well. I was so lucky because my Dad coached my teams for the majority of my athletic years, until I became a teenager and found everything "boring" (aka. boys became my interest.) Typical teen I guess you could say! Hehe.

A childhood represents pure innocence, where the world is one large playground to explore. Now that I have grown up and become a parent myself, my goal is to help in creating everlasting memories for my children too.
Our family has recently moved to Port Dover, Ontario (beach town) and I hope for my little ones that they may be surrounded by happiness, great friends, and good health that will shape the adults they will become.

So what motivated me to reminisce on my past memories as a child? Well, I am introducing this year's Kraft Celebration Tour! If you are unfamiliar with this contest, both Kraft Canada and TSN have partnered to recognize
the passion and community spirit that brings people together and
promotes healthy, active lifestyles from all of Canada. Since 2009,
the Kraft Celebration Tourhas helped hundreds of thousands of Canadians in 40 deserving communities with a total of $1 million toward projects such as skateboard parks, youth centres, renovating sports field or boxing facilities to name a few.

Does your town or city need a much needed upgrade? Well here's your chance to nominate your area by submitting a short essay, along with 5 photos to explain why YOUR community should be a part of the Kraft Celebration Tour and deserve $25,000 to put towards these upgrades. Hurry though, because you only have until JUNE 7TH, 2013 to submit your entry through kraftcelebrationtour.ca or tourneedecelebrationkraft.ca. Become involved and up to date via social media on theKraft Celebration Tour Fan Pageor on Twitter by using #KCT or #tourneedecelebrationkraft. Judges will select 20 finalists by June 30th, and then it's in Canada's hands from then on!

Good Luck & HAVE FUN! xx

Disclosure – I am participating in the Kraft
Celebration Tour Blogger Campaign. I received compensation as a thank
you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on
this blog are my own.